Somebody's Got To Water The Plants
by NorthernMage
Summary: Post-TATM. Brian's at their house when the Doctor arrives. At first, he didn't realise. 'Brian...I...' The Doctor whispered, looking faint. 'I...' 'Doctor, calm down. There's no problem, is there' Oneshot. For two-year anniversary of being on FanFiction.


**NorthernMage here!**

**...I meant to get this up yesterday, but lack of any organisation and the editor not liking me very much made it today.**

**Yesterday, two years ago, was the day I created this account, and two days later published my first story on this site.**

**This is my way of commemorating it, as I kinda forgot last year.**

**Basically, it's been an amazing time, so here's a fanfic to say it's been amazing.**

**Set right after The Angels Take Manhattan. (Your feels warning, right there.) Spoilers for basically all of New Who.**

**I don't own Doctor Who.**

_'Actually, it's you they can't give up, Doctor. And I don't think they should. Go with him. Go save every world you can find. Who else has that chance? Life will still be here.'_

_'You could come, Brian.'_

_'Somebody's got to water the plants. Just bring them back safe.'_

* * *

><p>It had been four months. If Brian was honest, he was worried. Despite the Doctor's assurance he would bring his son and daughter in law back safe, he had a feeling that they wouldn't be.<p>

He decided he was worrying too much. They'd be back soon, in time for Christmas. Even if was already late November...

He had no idea if the Doctor celebrated the holiday - he hadn't asked Rory about it in the short time Brian had known about the man who his son and daughter-in-law travelled with - but he felt sure that Amy and Rory would still return. It made sense to take a day off from everything that happened around the Doctor after a while. Why not Christmas?

After all, the TARDIS was a time machine. They'd turn up eventually. Since they'd left, he'd been looking into the last few years, where there had been a lot of alien activity around London. Most of it had happened at Christmas, so who knew? The same thing might happen again this year! Of course, nothing had been going on for a few years, but again.

Time machine.

He went over to a patch of flowers in their front yard, a group of roses. They were beginning to wilt. Pushing all worries from his mind, he lifted the watering can, and tilted it so a stream of a water flowed out of the spout and onto the dirt.

The wind suddenly picked up, and there was a strange wheezing, groaning noise from across the street. Brian turned to see the TARDIS, clearly only just landed. He put the watering can down as the door opened. Out came the Doctor.

'Doctor!' The father hurried over to the Time Lord. 'I've been so worried. Couldn't you have called? Four months is quite a while to stay out of contact!'

'Brian...I...' The Doctor whispered, looking faint. 'I...'

'Doctor, calm down. There's no problem, is there?' Looking at the Time Lord, Brian saw that he was almost trembling, and he was incredibly close to tears. 'Come on, let's get inside.'

* * *

><p>He had to tell him. The Doctor looked around the kitchen as Brian started to make some tea.<p>

He didn't do this kind of thing usually. He wouldn't be doing it now, but he knew Amy and Rory deserved this much. There was no way he could deny them this. So much of their lives had been taken up by him and waiting for him to come back.

_Two thousand years, Rory. You won't even sleep, you'll be conscious every second. It would drive you mad._

_Will she be safer if I stay?_

Of course she would be.

She'd be safer, though, if the Doctor had never met her. If he had never crashed into her garden...Amelia would be happy, loving Rory and raising her own child.

Brian didn't even know about River, he realised. He had no idea about any of that. The man had no idea that he was a grandfather to a part-Time Lady, and that the Time Lord sitting at the table was married to her.

'Doctor?'

'Ah, yes?' He looked up to see that Brian had pushed a cup of tea towards him, and was looking concerned.

'I asked what's wrong. Are Amy and Rory still in the TARDIS, or have you given them a holiday somewhere? I remember Rory once mentioned you taking them to Venice...' He trailed off, then leaned in close, eyes wide. 'Were there really vampires there? Rory just said they were vampire alien...things.'

'N-no...not vampires. They were Saturnynians, from Saturnyne. Most of the ones we met were female, called Sisters of the Water...' the Doctor almost subconsciously rambled, unable to quell the rising panic inside.

This was why he didn't like doing these things - there was never any way to tell the people left behind. Although, ever since he'd returned to Earth after a century of determinedly ignoring it after the War, the family had always known there was bad news.

Rose was with her family and the metacrisis. Martha and her family had both been involved with the Valiant and she had chosen to leave instead of continuing to travel. Francine had never liked him, and being the source of so much emotional damage for them, she would have been glad to see the back of him.

Donna had been unconscious, collapsed on him as he and Wilf had managed to get her into her bedroom. She would never know all the things she did, but Sylvia and Wilf knew, not that it was any consolation.

'So, are they in the TARDIS, or on holiday? You know, Doctor, you three haven't sent any messages home in months, I was starting to worry.'

'I...we don't usually send messages.' Brian looked surprised for a moment.

'But you said that you've had others travelling with you. Haven't you ever told their families where they're going?' The Doctor said nothing, deciding to stare at his tea as he tried to calm his trembling hands, hidden beneath the table. The other man sighed. 'Doctor, they'd be worried.'

'Some tell their families, some don't. It's not my decision.' After a moment, Brian shrugged.

'Well, with how much you all travel, it's not that surprising. So, are they at Space Florida? I think Amy told me about that place once...'

Oh dear Rassilon, he couldn't do it. He really couldn't...

'What was the name of it...oh, Siluria! I went there once, remember? You took me there for a few days. I didn't mean to pester you so much about it.'

_I can't I can't I really can't do this Ponds I'm so sorry-_

'If you've forgotten where you've taken them Doctor, there had better be a list of visited places on the TARDIS. If you've left Rory and Amy to their own devices in some strange time, I-'

With a jerking shudder, the cup of tea was pushed away sharply, hot tea spilling back onto his hand. Barely registering the pain, the Doctor stood, the chair making a loud scraping noise as he pushed it back abruptly.

_'This isn't how it usually works.'_ he choked out, not realising he had spoken until he saw Brian's confused face.

'Isn't how what works?' the other man asked cautiously.

'I promised you and I broke the promise and I...I c-can't fix it and it's Amy and Rory and I need to...'

'Doctor,' Brian's voice was quiet, 'what do you mean?'

At this point, the Doctor was staring at his feet, desperately trying to hold back the tremors and tears-

_Not them. Not them, Brian. Never them._

_Just bring them back safe._

He hadn't brought them back, they were stuck in the past and he hadn't been able to stop it. Those tombstones said they had died in their eighties, and already they had been in their thirties. The Angels had sent Rory far back enough to die, and he doubted Amy had been sent to an earlier time.

'Brian...I...'

'Where are my son and daughter-in-law?' His voice was flat, demanding.

_Please...don't make me tell you Brian..._

_You never could, you coward._ His hearts tightened, the Master's words echoing through his mind. While at the time he had meant that he could never shoot the other Time Lord, it was true for more than that.

_How right he was...I could never tell him._ The Doctor wasn't able to look Brian in the eye and tell him that the two people that he cared about most in the world, whom he had promised to bring back, were dead.

'I'm sorry. They're...not coming back.'

A euphemism for the truth. This way, he never had to say they were dead. It was there, it was what the words meant, but he never said it implicitly.

There was a snap as the handle of Brian's cup broke, his hand shaking with grief.

'D-de...' He could hardly pronounce the word.

'I tried...so much...' the Doctor whispered, sobbing. 'I did everything I-'

_'Don't you dare.'_ Brian's voice was low. 'Don't you dare say that you did everything you could, Doctor. If you had, they'd be here standing right next to you, perfectly fine.'

'If I could have taken their place I would have, but Rory had been sent back by the time I found out, and Amy...' He trailed off. It was physically hurting to try and hold back openly crying. 'She wanted to be with him I couldn't stop her!' he cried out.

Brian hissed something inaudible.

'What?' the Doctor asked, confused. What had he said?

'I said, Doctor...' Brian looked up at the Doctor, and he flinched at the pure hate coming from the man. 'get out!'

Brian stood, advancing on the Doctor. He quickly started backing up, mind dulled by heartbreak. _'Get out of this house, Doctor!'_ he roared. 'This - this belonged to _them_, and you failed them! I never want to see you again!'

Crying, eyes red, the Doctor turned and _ran_, trying to see through his tears.

_He's right, he's so very right..._

_I failed you and Rory, Amelia Pond..._

_Oh Rassilon, neither of you asked for this..._

Shoving the key into the lock, the door of the TARDIS opened, and the Time Lord paused, glancing behind him. Brian was right next to the flowers he had been watering when he had arrived.

The roses were flooded with too much water now. Brian had probably accidentally given them too much water.

With a pang, he realised that with Rose, he had known that this day was coming. He'd known that when it came, he would do everything in his power to save her, but he couldn't save her from everything. In the end, for all of them, it was the Oncoming Storm that destroyed them.

He'd forgotten that this time, hadn't prepared himself.

If possible, it hurt even more now.

* * *

><p>Brian glared as the Doctor slipped inside his TARDIS-<p>

_that stupid box_

-and within seconds it was fading away, the sound of it making him hate it all the more.

That sound had always meant a wondrous journey whenever the man had previously heard it, but now...

Now he simply wished that the Time Lord would never be heard of again.

**Just in case I confused anyone, I'm not implying that TenRose doesn't exist or that the Ponds were more important than her. The Doctor is still trying to come to terms with the fact Amy and Rory are gone, and also, Amy was the first one to see him in that regeneration.**

**Basically, this regeneration is closer to the Ponds. However, Rose and all his other companions are still incredibly precious to him. He's just more focused on Amy and Rory than them at the moment.**


End file.
